title: The relationship between emotional intelligence and academic stress in students of medical sciences.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Emotional intelligence (EI) theory provides a view about predicting effective factors in people's lives whether in education or profession. According to earlier studies, people who have higher emotional skills are more successful in many of life aspects :e.g., reaction to stress and controlling stress situations. Since students are the future of society, this study was carried out to evaluate the relationship between EI and education stress in the students of Birjand University of Medical Sciences (BUMS).
  
  
  METHODS
  In this cross-sectional study, 260 students were selected by proportional sampling in four faculties: Medicine, Nursing and Midwifery, Paramedical Sciences, and Health. Data were collected using two questionnaires: The standardized EI Shering's (33 questions, five domains) and the Student-Life Stress Inventory (57 questions, nine domains). The obtained data were analyzed by independent t-test, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and linear regression at the significant level of α = 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Totally, 65.8% of participants were females and 31.1% were males. The educational level of the participants included Associate's degree (44.6%) Bachelor's degree in science (31.2%), and medical science (23.1%). There was no significant correlation between EI scores and educational stress in students. But there was a significant relationship between EI with sex (P = 0.02) and mean of EI scores with three domains of academic stress: Personal favorites (P = 0.004), reaction to stressors (P = 0.002), and performance in stressful situations (P = 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although EI growth in different individuals can promote their success, it cannot decrease academic stress by itself which was particularly significant in females. Therefore, other causes of stress such as individual differences must be taken into consideration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, Family Health Research Center, Birjand University of Medical Sciences, Birjand, Iran.
authors.forename: Mohammad Reza
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Miri
authors.forename: Tayyebe
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kermani
authors.forename: Hoda
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Khoshbakht
authors.forename: Mitra
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moodi
keywords: Academic stress; emotional intelligence; individual differences; students